Point of Sale

This is a design for a Maplin headphone display. They wanted a modular concept that could be used to display up to four headphones on one of Maplin's standard bays. They also wanted their customers to be drawn in to pick the products up and test them with their media devices.

2 units with back branding.

We started the project by going to a Maplin store to see if there were any problems we could identify that the client hadn't told us about. We also went to Currys to see their displays to get a feel of problems shopkeepers and shoppers would experience using the display.

Maplin's current solution for headphone management.

The key issues that we found were: untidy cables, lack of POS space and also an area to place your media device to plug into the headphones to test them. Although there is a ledge and the audio jack of the headphones is currently sticking out of the display, it is not obvious that you can plug your device in to listen.

With this in mind I started sketching out forms and ideas, before moving onto modelling in Solidworks. We had only a three days to go through and finish this project so the sketching stage was invaluable to focus ideas so I could go into the program with a clear sense of what I was doing.

Ideation sketch page.

The final design incorporated a printed neoprene pad with a clear phone and audio jack graphic, a generous POS holder and a sideways mounted headphone stand, which helped to keep the display compact.

4 units joined together. The design allows users to try headphones for themselves.

The concept was then engineered, costed and then built as a fabricated mock-up of the injection moulded concept by our prototype team. The client requested a mirror to be placed on the stand so that the wearer could see themselves, but this was later taken out in further revisions.